During a quarterly earnings meeting yesterday, Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg briefly commented on the status of the company's mobile app experience, mentioning a belief that "a text box is still the default way we share." As reported by Bloomberg, the CEO said that the next step for Facebook on smartphones is a camera-first experience that changes status updates from simple written posts to dynamic photos and videos.

As it stands, when the Facebook app is opened today users must click on "Photo" at the top of the app to begin a status update, then navigate to the Camera icon among their photos in order to take a picture or record a video. Zuckerberg's vision is one more akin to Snapchat's camera-first user interface, but on Facebook it's described as "a swipe away," hinting that it could be introduced as a new left-to-right swipe, replace the friends list currently in the menu that appears after a right-to-left swipe, or come in from the top of the screen.

facebook msqrd update

Facebook's Olympics update in Canada and Brazil introduced a camera-first experience

"In most social apps today, a text box is still the default way we share,” Zuckerberg said. “Soon, we believe a camera will be the main way that we share.”

The Facebook camera itself will be updated with new features as well, including new augmented reality filters -- like the ones that appeared on Halloween -- and "have many of the same features Snapchat has," according to AdAge. Facebook's move to put itself more in line with Snapchat has stretched into its other apps, including Instagram, and the new camera-first mindset from the social media company is said to be something it's looking to implement in Facebook Messenger (which it's already begun to do) as well as WhatsApp.

For the third quarter, Facebook reported that sales grew 56 percent to $7.01 billion, 84 percent of which was generated on mobile devices. In total, advertising sales account for more than 97 percent of the company's revenue, but CFO David Wehner mentioned that the company will begin "limiting its ad load" so as not to turn away daily users, which rose to 1.18 billion in Q3 2016.

In regards to the new camera-focused update, Zuckerberg said that "it will start to roll out broadly across the world, hopefully sooner rather than later." In a small test in Brazil and Canada, Facebook tried out a Snapchat-like experience in its iOS app over the summer, updating it in those countries with a front-facing camera that appears when users open the app and letting them add various themes and filters onto their selfies inspired by the Olympics.

Top Rated Comments

Kebabselector Avatar
107 months ago
“Soon, we believe a camera will be the main way that we share.”

I find reading much quicker than waiting for a video to load and watching someone.
Nice try Farcebook.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
WiseAJ Avatar
107 months ago
Yay more bloat for the facebook app!
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
RoboCop001 Avatar
107 months ago
It better be an option. I remember not long ago they had the box at the top that showed the camera, and asked you to celebrate something. I don't even remember what it was. But I declined to give it camera access and I was stuck with a big black box at the top. As if they expected you to let it have the camera, and just have it on all the time.

F that. Not even for the privacy thing, it's just annoying. I'll use the camera when I want to!
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Popular Stories

2024 iPhone Boxes Feature

Apple Changes Trade-In Values for iPhones, iPads, Macs, and More

Thursday January 16, 2025 6:45 am PST by
Apple today adjusted estimated trade-in values for select iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch models in the U.S., according to its website. Some values increased, while others decreased. The changes were not too significant, with most values rising or dropping by $5 to $50. We have outlined some examples below: Device New Value Old Value iPhone 15 Pro Max Up to $630 U ...
Generic iOS 19 Feature Mock Light

iOS 19 Leak Reveals All-New Design

Friday January 17, 2025 2:42 pm PST by
iOS 19 is still around six months away from being announced, but a new leak has allegedly revealed a completely redesigned Camera app. Based on footage it obtained, YouTube channel Front Page Tech shared a video showing what the new Camera app will apparently look like, with the key change being translucent menus for camera controls. Overall, the design of these menus looks similar to...
Generic iOS 18

Everything New in iOS 18.3 Beta 3

Thursday January 16, 2025 12:39 pm PST by
Apple provided the third beta of iOS 18.3 to developers today, and while the betas have so far been light on new features, the third beta makes some major changes to Notification Summaries and also tweaks a few other features. Notification Summary Changes Apple made multiple changes to Notification Summaries in response to complaints about inaccurate summaries of news headlines. For...
2024 App Store Awards

Apple Explains Why It Removed TikTok From the App Store in the U.S.

Sunday January 19, 2025 6:58 am PST by
Apple on late Saturday removed TikTok from the App Store in the U.S., and it has now explained why it was required to take this action. Last year, the U.S. passed a law that required Chinese company ByteDance to divest its ownership of TikTok due to potential national security risks, or else the platform would be banned. That law went into effect today, and companies like Apple and Google...
iPhone 17 Slim Feature Single Camera 1 Redux

'iPhone 17 Air' Launching Later This Year With These 10 New Features

Wednesday January 15, 2025 7:16 am PST by
While the so-called "iPhone 17 Air" is not expected to launch until September, there are already plenty of rumors about the "ultra-thin" device. Overall, the "iPhone 17 Air" is shaping up to be a mixed bag. Due to its thinness, the device is expected to have some limited specifications compared to the iPhone 17 Pro models, including only a single rear camera, only a single speaker, no SIM...
iPad Pro vs iPhone 17 Air Feature

Here's How Thin the iPhone 17 Air Might Be

Friday January 17, 2025 3:38 pm PST by
For the last several months, we've been hearing rumors about a redesigned version of the iPhone 17 that Apple might call the iPhone 17 "Air," or something along those lines. It's going to replace the iPhone 17 Plus as Apple's fourth iPhone option, and it will be offered alongside the iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17 Pro Max. We know the iPhone 17 Air is going to be super slim, but...
iOS 19 Roundup Feature

iOS 19 Rumored to Be Compatible With These iPhones

Saturday January 18, 2025 10:28 am PST by
iOS 19 will not drop support for any iPhone models, according to French website iPhoneSoft.fr. The report cited a source who said iOS 19 will be compatible with any iPhone that can run iOS 18, which would mean the following models: iPhone 16 iPhone 16 Plus iPhone 16 Pro iPhone 16 Pro Max iPhone 15 iPhone 15 Plus iPhone 15 Pro iPhone 15 Pro Max iPhone 14 iPhon...
HomePod mini and Apple TV

Apple Expected to Launch 20+ Products This Year: Here's the Full List

Friday January 17, 2025 5:30 am PST by
2025 promises to be quite a big year for Apple, with the company rumored to be planning more than 20 product announcements this year. Apple's rumored smart home hub will be its second all-new product to launch in as many years, following the Apple Vision Pro headset last year. And of course, we will get several new iPhone and Apple Watch models, like every year. Beyond that, Apple could...